Some questions on Maya

The book Kaivalya Navaneetam, recommended by Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, has answered six questions on maya.

1. What is maya?

A: It is anirvachaniya or indescribable.

2. To whom does it come?

A: To the mind or ego who feels that he is a separate entity, who thinks ‘I do this’ or ‘This is mine’.

3. Where does it come from and how did it originate?

a: Nobody can say.

4. How did it arise?

A: Through non-vichara, through failure to enquire ‘Who am I?’

5. If the Self and maya both exist, does this not invalidate the theory of Advaita?

A: It need not, since maya is dependent on the Self as the picture is on the screen. The picture is not real in the sense that the screen is real.

6. If the Self and maya are one, could it not be argued that the Self is of the nature of maya and that it is also illusory?
A: No, the Self can be capable of producing illusion without being illusory.

The above answers are probably not fulfilling, but no answers, which our minds can comprehend, can be given for reasons like why there is creation in the first place, how the embodied atma (jiva) identifies with the ego and so on. According to Jnanis, nothing ever happens, and there is nothing called creation. The world appears real if we have the "I" thought or ego consciousness. They further state that we are the SELF and it is simply that we have forgotten who we really are.

It is said that SELF can only be "realised", not understood.